<p>I am a high school student and i want to be an engineer. I’m gifted in math and physics i find those classes easy. I want to go to a party school because i want college to be fun even though their engineering program is about 50th in the nation. I’ve partied all throughout high school and i dont wanna go to a super tough school where all you do is work. However should i go to the tough school for a better shot at internships and job placement?</p>
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<p>Tone down the “gifted” stuff. It is off-putting to many people.</p>
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<p>1) It sounds like you already know what you want. However, you get out of something what you put into it, so if you want to go get an engineering degree and just skate through it (if it turns out you can), you are doing yourself a disservice.</p>
<p>2) Even at tough schools, if you have good time management, you can do more than just work all the time.</p>
<p>3) There are lots of schools that fit both sides of this post (e.g. U. Illinois, U. Michigan, Berkeley, Purdue, etc.).</p>
<p>U. Texas, too! I agree, though - wait to define yourself as “gifted” until you ace an honors physics class! That might bring you down a notch. I’m speaking from personal experience.</p>
<p>Agreed on the “gifted” thing - you need to remember that the criteria change at each level - it is not a big deal to be one of the best in math and science at your school, but when you get to an engineering department you quickly find that everyone can say that. “Gifted” in math and science equals “average” in engineering - until you are tested at a higher standard I would be wary of using that word.</p>
<p>You can party anywhere, you can get at least a decent engineering education at a wide variety of schools, it all just depends on the level of delayed gratification you can tolerate.</p>
<p>In general, the better the school, the better your career and income prospects through life. In general, the more dedicated and hardworking you are at school, the better your career and income prospects through life. If you go to a “lesser” school than you could, and spend the time partying, you will have a great time in college but will have a harder time in life - fewer and less lucrative job prospects. If you got a “better” school and work hard, you will not have as much fun in college but will have more and more lucrative job prospects. This is not complex to understand.</p>
<p>So, how important is “the college experience” to you? Is it worth driving a Chevy instead of a BMW? Is it worth doing routine work instead of innovative? Is it worth being a job-seeker instead of a sought-after asset? If so, more power to you - it is your life, and you will still have a better go of it than most people without an engineering degree.</p>
<p>Perhaps the only thing I would really warn you about is that, regardless of school, if you want to do grad school I would not plan on a ton of partying - grad programs expect you to be diligent in your studies, regardless of where you are.</p>
<p>There are a couple of top tier companies that basically only recruit at a select few top tier schools. If you are not from those schools, it is much more difficult to land an internship or entry level position.</p>
<p>It hardly matters whether your school is ranked #50 or #15. You will work you butt off in engineering, regardless.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to sound rude, but I know a lot of people who were so called “gifted” at math and physics in high school who dropped out 2 quarters into their freshman year. If you’re already more interested in partying than learning from the get-go, you could be in serious trouble.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no correlation between “State School” vs “Upper Tier” and level of difficulty of the program, especially considering engineering, sciences, and mathematics.</p>
<p>State schools don’t dumb down the difficulty of the programs.</p>
<p>The better the school, the better the parties.</p>
<p>Ominous- the difference is that “top” schools tend to have students who have done better in high school/ higher stats.
If you’re in a class where the grade is curved, it’ll be easier to get an A at the state school than at the top school.</p>
<p>(and yes, I’ve had experience taking engineering courses at both).</p>
<p>That is probably why most classes in state schools aren’t curved. You get what you earn, not what you have compared to you classmates most of the time.</p>
<p>Being a state school or not does not correlate with whether you are top tier. In fact, I think it is 7 of the “top 10” engineering programs are state schools.</p>
<p>I’ve yet to take an upper level mathematics class at a State school that has been curved.</p>
<p>The main point is this, there is no “easy” way to an engineering or mathematics based degree. You are going to have to work at it.</p>
<p>Plenty of State schools do offer a wide variety of majors that are probably easy to get through, but engineering won’t be one of them.</p>
<p>You probably weren’t nearly as “gifted” as the OP is though ;)</p>
<p>Don’t be a dope. Listen to the advice in Post #6. Have you even looked at the core classes for an undergraduate engineering department? Lots and lots of math.</p>
<p>This is the second thread the OP has started regarding partying in college.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/983967-having-fun-engineer-college.html#post1065467345[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/983967-having-fun-engineer-college.html#post1065467345</a></p>
<p>I predict that he/she will not last long as an engineering student, at least with this expectation/hope of college!</p>
<p>Engineering is hard, but it really depends on how many classes you take per semester. I am taking Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, and two other classes right now. I maybe have ten hours of free time a week.</p>
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<p>That honestly seems like a fairly light semester assuming you didn’t name the other classes because they are random gen ed courses.</p>
<p>Awesome thing about large state schools is that they party hard but most of them excel in academics as well so there are plenty of kids who are just as if not more motivated than you academically to study with. Companies also recruit heavily at state schools so I wouldn’t say that your job prospects would go down either.</p>